Physical Activity Tracking Wristbands for Use in Research With Older Adults: An Overview and Recommendations

Abstract

Traditional physical activity tracking tools, such as self-report questionnaires, are inherently subjective and vulnerable to bias. Physical activity tracking technology, such as activity tracking wristbands, is becoming more reliable and readily available. As such, researchers are employing these objective measurement tools in both observational- and intervention-based studies. There remains a gap in the literature on how to properly select activity tracking wristbands for research, specifically for the older adult population. This paper outlines considerations for choosing the most appropriate wrist-worn wearable device for use in research with older adults. Device features, outcome measures, population, and methodological considerations are explored.

MyMove: Facilitating Older Adults to Collect In-Situ Activity Labels on a Smartwatch with Speech

“…Thus, we designed and implemented a custom watchface to display our prompt messages (e.g., Figure 1b). We also allowed people to choose either physical or virtual (touchscreen) buttons for most functionalities, considering diverging preferences of older adults on the physical and virtual buttons [77,128]. We assigned up to two main functions on each screen and placed virtual buttons with a white background (e.g., Figure 1a-1d) near the top-right and the bottom-right physical buttons on the side, with each virtual button matching the corresponding physical button.…”